Incorrigible Optimist: A Political Memoir by Gareth Evans
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702019894990 |
| Author | David M. Malone |
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
questioned openly and repeatedly, it is useful to return to its genesis and ask why
the United States committed to Europe’s defence in the first place. US policy-
makers understood that American prosperity and security depended on conditions
in the international system, and the United States could not expect to retreat into
isolation without sacrificing its long-term interests.
Gareth Evans
Incorrigible Optimist: A Political Memoir
Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2017. 402 pp. $49.99 (hardcover)
ISBN: 9-7805-2286-644-5
Reviewed by: David M. Malone (malone@unu.edu), United Nations University, Shibuya,
Tokyo, Japan
Gareth Evans was one of the defining foreign ministers of the post-Cold War era,
completing this book, fittingly, as chancellor of the Australian National
University, Canberra. He characterizes his early trade as that of an academic
lawyer, and that he remains, although added to those descriptors might be
political pugilist, international idealist, take-no-prisoners activist, and any
number of others.
What I had not known is how well Evans writes, including the entertaining
barbs he aims at past antagonists he despises, as opposed to the somewhat surpris-
ing encomiums addressed to those he respects. He had the gift of gathering sup-
porters to his side and fighting the good fight, first as Australian attorney-general,
and, following a range of political avatars, as foreign minister for an exceptional
eight-year tenure, from 1988 to 1996.
He followed this up internationally with nearly a decade as president of the
International Crisis Group, the high-quality international research and analysis
non-governmental organization specializing in the conflicts and stresses within
(mainly) developing countries and regions. Its coverage of policy research orphans
such as North Africa and the Caucasus countries has been particularly valuable, as
has its exceptionally acute country analysis of, for example, Pakistan and
Indonesia.
Evans came to be identified internationally with the humanitarian imperative
and the struggle against nuclear proliferation, on both of which he played a major
role. There is a Canadian angle to his close identification with the emergence of the
Responsibility to Protect principle, eventually endorsed by both the 2005 United
Nations’ (UN) Summit and, some months later, the UN Security Council.
Evans overlapped briefly in 1996, as foreign minister, with a new Canadian
counterpart, Lloyd Axworthy—his polar opposite in personal style but soul-
mate on many issues of substance. Axworthy, hitherto perhaps best known
for his left-leaning ministerial work on Canada’s economic policy and social
programs, in his last ministerial portfolio morphed into a determined norm
entrepreneur at the international level. His most kinetic success was the
Book Reviews 619
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